South America, with documented records from Brazil and Paraguay.
Fine-art photographic collection
Brasiella minarum
A South American tiger beetle recorded from both dry and humid Chaco landscapes.
About this species
Brasiella minarum(Putzeys, 1845)
Information reviewed15 July 2026
Brasiella minarum is a small South American tiger beetle documented in Brazil and Paraguay. Field records place it in both Dry Chaco and Humid Chaco ecoregions, showing that the species can use sharply different open-ground environments while retaining the same daylight pursuit body plan.
Taxonomy
Animalia · Arthropoda · Insecta · Coleoptera · Carabidae · Brasiella
Accepted species in the tiger-beetle subfamily Cicindelinae. · checked 2026-07-15
Brazil and ParaguayBroad documented range and selected reference localities — not a complete occurrence map.
What makes this species remarkable?
Paraguayan records place the species in both the Dry Chaco and the Humid Chaco — two landscapes with very different moisture regimes.
Its projecting eyes provide overlapping forward vision for judging strike distance while still monitoring a broad arc around the running beetle.
The adult hunts by pursuit on open ground, whereas the larva reverses the strategy and waits anchored inside a vertical burrow for prey to cross the entrance.